Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets dominate Mississippi Valley State, 76-59

Coming into Tuesday night’s game between Georgia Tech and Mississippi Valley State, the word “blowout” seemed to be the word of choice when making predictions, both in this space and elsewhere. That came to fruition in a big way, as the Yellow Jackets cruised to a 76-59 win that was misleading in that it seemed to be much more lopsided.

After about 5 minutes of court time, the score was knotted at 6-6, but that was the last time that MVSU would be near Tech on the scoreboard. Following that, the Jackets went on a 26-2 run to grab a decisive 32-8 lead, pulling away in amazingly quick fashion, and shutting down the MVSU offense in a mighty way. Tech cruised into halftime with a 41-14 lead, and in the first 20 minutes, they held the Delta Devils to just 4 for 31 (12.9%) from the field while outrebounding the visitors by a 27-15 margin.

The game was virtually over at that point, and frankly, Tech played like it, as the Jackets were actually outscored by a 34-29 mark after the halftime break. Robert Carter, Jr. led the Jackets in scoring with just 13 points, but he grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds in the game (surpassing his previous mark of 13), and that double-double was a microcosm of his dominance over his 22 minutes of court time.

Carter, Jr. was joined by good games from Trae Golden (10 points on only 4 field goal attempts) and Daniel Miller (8 points, 12 rebounds), but this was the true definition of a team effort. No Jackets player saw more than 22 minutes on the floor, and the bench effectively ran the clock out in the second half.

Unfortunately, there probably isn’t much to take from this game, simply because of the inferior level of competition (with no disrespect to Mississippi Valley State, who played very hard). The Jackets will be back in action on Friday, as they travel to Brooklyn, New York to face off with the Ole Miss Rebels in the Barclays Center Classic. Stay tuned.